kitabu
noun
book; written volume. The plural is vitabu.
A foundational reading word whose singular and plural expose the ki-/vi- noun-class pattern.
Origins
Kitabu is a clearly borrowed pre-modern Indian Ocean word in the comparative record, with the Swahili noun-class pair kitabu/vitabu. The immediate donor language is not settled in the local evidence.
Sources3
Sergio Baldi, Dictionary of Arabic Loanwords in the Languages of Central and East Africa (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2021), entry 2396, 271.
Documents kitabu under Arabic كِتَاب (kitāb) in the loanword comparative record.
M. Haspelmath and U. Tadmor, World Loanword Database · Swahili profile (Max Planck Institute / Lexibank, 2009), Swahili profile; forms.csv.
Classifies kitabu as a clearly borrowed pre-modern word in the Swahili profile.
Edward Steere, A Handbook of the Swahili Language as Spoken at Zanzibar (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1884), 313.
Records kitabu / vitabu as book.
Examples
Ninasoma kitabu kipya.
I am reading a new book.
Kitabu hiki kina picha nyingi.
This book has many pictures.
Weka kitabu mezani.
Put the book on the table.
Kitabu changu kimepotea.
My book is lost.
Nilinunua kitabu cha historia.
I bought a history book.
Fungua kitabu ukurasa wa kumi.
Open the book to page ten.
Kitabu hiki ni cha maktaba.
This book belongs to the library.
Alikopa kitabu kutoka shule.
They borrowed a book from school.
Andika jina lako katika kitabu.
Write your name in the book.
